1987 Extremaduran regional election
10 June 1987
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All 65 seats in the Assembly of Extremadura 33 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Registered | 808,654 2.9% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 601,597 (74.4%) 2.5 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Constituency results map for the Assembly of Extremadura | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A regional election was held in Extremadura on Wednesday, 10 June 1987, to elect the 2nd Assembly of the autonomous community. All 65 seats in the Assembly were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in twelve other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain, as well as the 1987 European Parliament election.
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won the election with a new absolute majority of seats, albeit losing 1 seat from its 1983 result. The People's Alliance (AP), which had undergone an internal crisis after the breakup of the People's Coalition in 1986, lost support and fell from the coalition's 30% of the share to 24%, losing 3 seats as a result.
The main election winner was the centrist Democratic and Social Centre (CDS), a party led by the former Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez, which entered the Assembly for the first with 8 seats and 12% of the vote, becoming the only party within the Assembly that made gains, as all others (including regionalist United Extremadura (EU)) lost votes. United Left, an electoral coalition comprising the Communist Party of Spain and other left-wing parties, also lost 2 seats.
Overview
Under the 1983 Statute of Autonomy, the Assembly of Extremadura was the unicameral legislature of the homonymous autonomous community, having legislative power in devolved matters, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a regional president.[1]
Electoral system
Voting for the Assembly was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Extremadura and in full enjoyment of their political rights, provided that they were not sentenced—by a final court ruling—to deprivation of the right to vote, nor being legally incapacitated.[2][3][4]
The Assembly of Extremadura was entitled to a maximum of 65 seats, with the electoral law setting its size at that number. All members were elected in two multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Badajoz and Cáceres, with each being allocated an initial minimum of 20 seats and the remaining 25 being distributed in proportion to their populations—using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional voting system, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes (which included blank ballots) being applied in each constituency. Alternatively, parties failing to reach the threshold in one of the constituencies were also entitled to enter the seat distribution as long as they ran candidates in both districts and reached five percent regionally.[2][5]
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Assembly constituency was entitled the following seats:[6]
| Seats | Constituencies |
|---|---|
| 35 | Badajoz |
| 30 | Cáceres |
The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacated seats; instead, any vacancies that occurred after the proclamation of candidates and into the legislative term were to be covered by the successive candidates in the list and, when required, by the designated substitutes.[7][8]
Election date
The term of the Assembly of Extremadura expired four years after the date of its previous ordinary election. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the scheduled date of expiry of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Journal of Extremadura (DOE), with election day taking place between the fifty-fourth and the sixtieth day from publication.[2][9][10] The previous election was held on 8 May 1983, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 8 May 1987. The election decree was required to be published in the DOE no later than 14 April 1987, with the election taking place up to the sixtieth day from publication, setting the latest possible date for election day on Saturday, 13 June 1987.
The Assembly of Extremadura could not be dissolved before the date of expiry of parliament, except in the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot. In such a case, the Assembly was to be automatically dissolved and a snap election called, with elected deputies merely serving out what remained of their original four-year term.[9][11]
The election to the Assembly of Extremadura was officially called on 14 April 1987 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOE, setting election day for 10 June.[6]
Opinion polls
The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a poll. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 33 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Assembly of Extremadura.
| Polling firm/Commissioner | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Turnout | Lead | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 regional election | 10 Jun 1987 | — | 74.4 | 49.2 34 |
– | 5.8 4 |
5.4 2 |
12.4 8 |
24.2 17 |
25.0 |
| Demoscopia/El País[p 1] | 22–26 May 1987 | ? | 73 | 49.1 35 |
– | 7.2 6 |
3.4 1 |
9.7 6 |
27.5 17 |
21.6 |
| Sofemasa/AP[p 2][p 3] | 16 Apr 1987 | ? | ? | 43.5 | – | – | 4.8 | 14.5 | 24.1 | 19.4 |
| 1986 general election | 22 Jun 1986 | — | 73.6 | 55.9 (39) |
26.7 (19) |
2.7 (1) |
3.9 (1) |
8.0 (5) |
[c] | 29.2 |
| 1983 regional election | 8 May 1983 | — | 71.9 | 53.0 36 |
30.1 20 |
8.5 6 |
6.5[d] 4 |
0.8 0 |
[c] | 22.9 |
Results
Overall
| Parties and alliances | Popular vote | Seats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ±pp | Total | +/− | ||
| Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) | 292,935 | 49.18 | −3.84 | 34 | −1 | |
| People's Alliance (AP)1 | 144,117 | 24.19 | −5.91 | 17 | −3 | |
| Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) | 73,554 | 12.35 | +11.56 | 8 | +8 | |
| United Extremadura (EU) | 34,606 | 5.81 | −2.67 | 4 | −2 | |
| United Left (IU)2 | 32,240 | 5.41 | −1.07 | 2 | −2 | |
| Workers' Party of Spain–Communist Unity (PTE–UC) | 5,317 | 0.89 | New | 0 | ±0 | |
| People's Democratic Party (PDP) | 5,203 | 0.87 | New | 0 | ±0 | |
| Liberal Party (PL) | 2,286 | 0.38 | New | 0 | ±0 | |
| Humanist Platform (PH) | 619 | 0.10 | New | 0 | ±0 | |
| Blank ballots | 4,785 | 0.80 | +0.33 | |||
| Total | 595,662 | 65 | ±0 | |||
| Valid votes | 595,662 | 99.01 | −0.08 | |||
| Invalid votes | 5,935 | 0.99 | +0.08 | |||
| Votes cast / turnout | 601,597 | 74.39 | +2.49 | |||
| Abstentions | 207,057 | 25.61 | −2.49 | |||
| Registered voters | 808,654 | |||||
| Sources[12][13][14] | ||||||
Footnotes:
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Distribution by constituency
| Constituency | PSOE | AP | CDS | EU | IU | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | |
| Badajoz | 51.9 | 19 | 23.8 | 9 | 13.2 | 5 | 1.6 | − | 7.0 | 2 |
| Cáceres | 45.1 | 15 | 24.9 | 8 | 11.1 | 3 | 12.2 | 4 | 3.0 | − |
| Total | 49.2 | 34 | 24.2 | 17 | 12.4 | 8 | 5.8 | 4 | 5.4 | 2 |
| Sources[12][13][14] | ||||||||||
Aftermath
| Investiture Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra (PSOE) | ||
| Ballot → | 17 July 1987 | |
|---|---|---|
| Required majority → | 33 out of 65 | |
Yes
|
34 / 65
| |
16 / 65
| ||
12 / 65
| ||
Absentees
|
3 / 65
| |
| Sources[12] | ||
Notes
References
- Opinion poll sources
- ^ "Los socialistas mantienen la hegemonía" (PDF). El País (in Spanish). 4 June 1987.
- ^ "Una encuesta de AP pronostica un fuerte descenso del PSOE en las municipales". ABC (in Spanish). 17 April 1987.
- ^ "Notable descenso del PSOE en los próximos comicios, según una encuesta encargada por AP". ABC Sevilla (in Spanish). 17 April 1987.
- Other
- ^ Statute (1983), art. 19.
- ^ a b c Statute (1983), art. 22.
- ^ LEEx (1987), art. 2.
- ^ LOREG (1985), arts. 2–3.
- ^ LEEx (1987), arts. 17–19.
- ^ a b Decreto del Presidente, de 13 de abril de 1987, por el que se convocan elecciones a la Asamblea de Extremadura (PDF) (Decree). Official Journal of Extremadura (in Spanish). 13 April 1987. Retrieved 21 December 2025.
- ^ LEEx (1987), arts. 19 & 26.
- ^ LOREG (1985), arts. 46 & 48.
- ^ a b LEEx (1987), arts. 22–23.
- ^ LOREG (1985), art. 42.
- ^ Statute (1983), art. 34.
- ^ a b c Lozano, Carles. "Elecciones a la Asamblea de Extremadura (desde 1983)". Historia Electoral.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 18 October 2025.
- ^ a b "Resolución de 15 de julio de 1987, haciendo públicos los resultados del Escrutinio General y Proclamación de Diputados Electos resultantes de las Elecciones a la Asamblea de Extremadura, celebradas el día 10 de junio de 1987" (PDF). Official Journal of Extremadura (in Spanish) (57): 933–934. 21 July 1987. ISSN 2483-5188. Retrieved 21 December 2025.
- ^ a b "Nº 75. Informe de fiscalización de la regularidad de las contabilidades electorales derivadas de las elecciones celebradas el 10 de junio de 1987 a la Asamblea de Extremadura" (PDF). Court of Auditors (in Spanish). Retrieved 21 December 2025.
Bibliography
- Ley Orgánica 1/1983, de 25 de febrero, de Estatuto de Autonomía de Extremadura (Organic Law 1/1983). Official State Gazette (in Spanish). 25 February 1983 [version as of 25 March 1994]. BOE-A-1983-6190. Retrieved 15 November 2025.
- Ley Orgánica 5/1985, de 19 de junio, del Régimen Electoral General (Organic Law 5/1985). Official State Gazette (in Spanish). 19 June 1985 [version as of 3 April 1987]. BOE-A-1985-11672. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
- Ley 2/1987, de 16 de marzo, de Elecciones a la Asamblea de Extremadura (Law 2/1987). Official State Gazette (in Spanish). 16 March 1987 [version as of 16 March 1987]. BOE-A-1987-8817. Retrieved 7 October 2025.